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The record label representing Brit Award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its desire to claim a share of royalties from a song it claims was created using an artificial intelligence "replica" of the singer's unique vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by British dance act Haven, gained widespread popularity on social media in October, in part due to its smooth soul singing by an unnamed female singer.

Despite its momentum and potential top 40 entry in both UK and US, the track was later removed by leading music services after industry organizations issued copyright requests, stating it violated copyright by impersonating another musician.

Although 'I Run' has since been reissued with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it is convinced the initial recording was made with AI trained on her body of work and is now seeking financial compensation.

A Larger Issue in Play

"This isn't just about one artist. It's bigger than a single performer or one song," the label stated in a recent statement.

FAMM also stated its belief that "each iterations of the track infringe on the artist's legal rights and unfairly take advantage of the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she works."

Famous for hits like 'Be Honest' and 'Little Things', Smith was crowned British Female Solo Artist at the annual Brit Awards in 2019.

Suggesting that her fans were possibly misled by Haven's original track, the label concluded: "Our industry must not permit this to become the standard practice."

Creators Admit Using AI Technology

The duo responsible for the song have publicly confirmed utilizing AI during its creation.

Songwriter Harrison Walker explained that the initial voice were actually his own but were extensively altered using music-generation platform Suno, often called the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the second producer, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on his accounts that AI was used to "apply our original vocal a feminine tone".

Donaghue and Walker assert that they wrote and produced the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their original computer files.

"This shouldn't be mystery that I used AI-assisted vocal editing to convert solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"Being a songwriter and producer, I like experimenting with new tools, methods and remaining on the cutting edge of what's happening," he continued.

"To set the facts straight, the artists behind HAVEN are actual and people, and all we want to do is make enjoyable music for other humans."

Legal Gray Areas and Broader Impact

While their first release of 'I Run' was suspended from official charts, the replacement version managed to break into the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has positioned the entire episode as a critical test case for the music industry's changing relationship with AI.

The label stated it had "an obligation to speak up" and "stimulate public discourse", because AI is proliferating at an "rapid rate and significantly outpacing legal oversight".

"AI-generated content should be transparently labelled as such so that the public may decide whether they listen to it or not," the message continued.

Artists as 'Collateral Victims'

Smith shared her label's statement on her personal Instagram profile.

The text cautioned that musicians and creators were turning into "unintended casualties in the competition by policymakers and corporations towards AI supremacy".

It also stated that the label would distribute any potential songwriting credits with the collaborators behind Smith's music.

"If we are successful in establishing that AI assisted to compose the words and melody in 'I Run' and are granted a portion of the song, we would seek to assign every one of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Continuing Rise of AI Music

The emergence of AI-generated music has been a source of both fascination and anxiety for the music industry.

• In the summer, the group Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of streams before revealing they used AI to help develop their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust topped a US country sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not necessarily averse to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for copyright infringement by the industry's major biggest record labels, but those cases have now been resolved.

Subsequently, Warner Music established a collaboration with the firm, which will enable users to create songs using the voices, names, and likenesses of Warner acts who opt in to the program.

Yet, it remains uncertain how a large number of established artists will agree to such applications of their work.

Just last week, a group of renowned artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album containing silent songs or audio of empty studios in opposition to potential revisions to copyright law.

They contend these changes would make it easier for AI companies to train systems using copyrighted work without obtaining a license.